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View Full Version : Interesting Looking Hitchhiker – What is it?

SuperDaveA
05/27/2011, 12:37 PM
Just started my first SW tank. It's a 12 gallon JBJ nano. The below picture shows a little pink bubbly looking guy that I just noticed pop out of my live rock. It's probably 1/8" in diameter. Anyone have any idea what it is? Thanks!
lordofthereef
05/27/2011, 12:48 PM
Looks like some closed zoa polyps to me.
disc1
05/27/2011, 12:55 PM
That is a tunicate and a very nice one at that.

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disc1
05/27/2011, 12:58 PM
Look them up. Its more closely related to you than it is to any of the other things in the tank except maybe the fish. It fits into the classification with vertebrates. Really neat animal. If it lives through the cycle, you can feed it a little phyto if you want it to grow.

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SuperDaveA
05/27/2011, 01:59 PM
Thanks! I sure hope it lives thru the cycle :-)
SuperDaveA
05/27/2011, 02:06 PM
I was just looking at the picture I cropped to attach to this post and I noticed there are actually half a dozen other very small colonies of these guys around the bigger one that I posted. Funny, I didn't even notice until I took the picture of the one :-)
neoalchemist74
05/27/2011, 02:18 PM
+1 on the Tunicate, your going to have to feed it often to keep it alive. Ask some peolpe in the nonphotosynthetic forum for suggestion on proper foods as they can be picky feeders.
Lynnmw1208
05/27/2011, 10:25 PM
neat! I have one of these too that showed up under one of my frag discs!
kgross
05/27/2011, 11:13 PM
That is a nice looking Tunicate. That is a great find.
SuperDaveA
05/28/2011, 12:12 AM
I just started my tank so it has hardly started cycling. Do you think I should start feeding this guy now? Or will he be ok?

By the way, does anyone know how to put larger pictures into posts? I created a photobucket account and uploaded a pic and then tried to upload the picture to this post but it keeps telling me the picture is too big. What is the max size allowed?
Thanks!
kgross
05/28/2011, 11:53 AM
Rather than upload the picture, post the img link from photobucket. Then it will display the photobucket picture directly.
disc1
05/28/2011, 12:29 PM
As pretty as that is, if it's on a smallish rock it might be worth it to see if someone would keep it for you while you cycle. Tunicates are capable of making it through the cycle if it's not too bad. If you started with cured rock you won't get as high of an ammonia spike in your cycle and I think it will probably make it.
SuperDaveA
05/28/2011, 02:35 PM
I started with cured rock and so far I haven't had too much ammonia going on. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who could hold onto it for me. Here's hoping :fish1:

By the way, here is the larger picture. You can see two other little colonies to the left.

<a href="http://s1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc400/CountThis/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_1161.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc400/CountThis/IMG_1161.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
kgross
05/28/2011, 03:52 PM
That is some great rock you got.
SuperDaveA
06/08/2011, 08:58 PM
Update. My stupid peppermint shrimp ate the tunicate..... o well so much for that :(
scapes
06/08/2011, 09:04 PM
ahhh...that's too bad. they looked cool :(